A Cryptic Commission in association with Cove Park. Premieres in 2022 at Sonica Glasgow. 

L’Apparition is an audio-visual experience which unfolds as a mesmerising montage, blending Gustav Moreau’s preparatory sketches for his painting, L’Apparition, with iconic Hollywood figures like Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe. Orleans’ witty production ingeniously intertwines the timeless tale of Salome with a contemporary commentary on the pervasive male gaze in the art, music and film industry,  offering a fresh and empowering exploration of the femme fatale.

In this captivating fusion of music, cinema and theatre, Orleans shifts the spotlight away from established stereotypes and directs it squarely onto herself. The musical composition, a rich and layered tapestry influenced by the operatic works of Strauss and Massenet, blends with echoes of Hollywood hits such as I wanna be loved by you.  It features a haunting performance of Orleans’ interpretations with her own evocative voice and musical arrangements.

For touring enquiries, please contact:  claire@cryptic.org.uk

The live solo performance for solo vocal, violin, sampler and synthesiser is accompanied by the video projection,  – a collage including fragments of literature, painting, sculpture, ballet and film.  Photo 1, 3 – Chan Masson, Photo 2, 4, 5, and 6 – Siyao Li 

L’Apparition considers hundreds of sketches made by Gustave Moreau exploring the character of Salome, as portrayed in his painting L’Apparition. The main inspiration and starting point was an investigation of music and visuals in the form of a contemporary “composed novel”, exploring syntax of found footage pattern, texture, colour, text, gesture and electroacoustic composition. The composition’s multi-layered stages rely on methods associated with appropriation and remix and are informed by the work of contemporary artists such as Peter Tscherkassky, Vicki Bennett and Martin Arnold. Musically, scored for vocals, violin and octotrack L’Apparition is inspired by the opera piece Salomé by Richard Strauss and Massenet’s Hérodiade  The compositions are analysed, dissected, sampled and transformed with variety of interpretations using electronic orchestration and Artificial Intelligence. The found footage, music and sound Orleans treats as a path to restoration, in which alteration (including extraction, reframing and deformation) becomes a prelude to the new. Sampling, overexposure and original composition is merged to create a contemporary portrait of Salome based on so far male interpretations of the legend. Appropriation and transformation of stereotyped femininity aims to create a path to reframe the cliché of objectified female body using appropriation, caricature, embellishment and illumination.